Last
Friday I was invited to participate
in a Q&A with the stars of Psych.
Naturally I blew off work so I could
dial in and it was well worth it,
even if I didn't ask any questions.
Other people did and here's what
James and Duléhad
to say to them.

I
know that you’ve both played
very different characters in other
things. I know that Mr. Roday had
actually played alongside to Maggie
Lawson in Fear Itself and Mr. Dulé
you had a wonderful part on West
Wing for a while. So how do you
feel now about playing comedy? Do
you enjoy it better; do you like
doing horror or drama more? —Jennifer
Iaccino with Media Blvd Magazine

Dulé:
I actually enjoy comedy; it’s
a lot of fun. After doing seven
years of drama on West Wing to be
able to come and work with Roday
and the rest of the cast has been
a blast. It’s something different,
especially working with Roday where
he likes to improv a lot. It challenges
me to work on different muscles
that I haven’t used before.

James:
Well, first of all I just want to
thank you for reminding me that
I did in fact appear in Fear Itself;
I often forget that. Secondly, I
would say I’ve actually done
a lot more comedy than I’ve
done drama. It’s weird the
way that worked out, because when
I came out of theater school I took
myself way too seriously, so it’s
kind of ironic that I ended up sort
of going down the comedy path.

I
think what makes this role special
compared to some of the other stuff
that I’ve done is just the
fact that I’ve had the opportunity
to live with it so long and sort
of watch it sort of grow and nurture
it, not unlike you nurture a plant.
And working with a great group and
an unbelievable cast and sort of
having the freedom to do what we
do on the show sort of sets it apart
from any role that I’ve played,
comedy or drama. It’s just
been a special ride. It’s
been a special ride.

How
much say do you guys get in what
goes on in the dialog, particularly
between the humorous segments and
something like the nicknames that
Shawn makes up for Gus? What goes
on with those types of moments?
—Traci Grant with TheStarScoop.com

James: Unlike, I think, the majority
of shows on television right now
we actually have a frighteningly
high amount of say in what we do
with the dialog. A lot of times
it comes in great and all we have
to do is say it, but any time we
sort of recognize an opportunity
to throw something in or add something
or if we have a better name for
Gus than the one that came in we
just pull the trigger.

We’re
pretty good at monitoring ourselves
so that we only do it if we’re
making it better, and it’s
very rare that we find out later
that the people down in LA were
disappointed because we changed
something. They’re usually
pretty pleased.

Dulé:
Yes. And the names that we come
up with most of the time it has
to do with somebody that we know,
somebody in the cast knows or somebody
that one of the writers knows or
a producer, something like that.
I would say pretty much eight times
out of ten there is some relation
to the crazy name that Gus is being
called.

This
question is for both of you. What
detectives, in real life or in fiction,
have been an influence for the characters?
—Jessica Mahn with Fan
Bolt.com

James:
You know what, I go to this movie
called Without a Clue that not a
lot of people saw. It was Michael
Caine and Ben Kingsley, and the
idea behind the movie was that Watson
was the brains of the operation
and Holmes was just this very theatrical
sort of charlatan that diverted
people’s attention and got
all the ladies. It’s a very,
very funny movie that not a lot
of people have seen.

But
I love the fact that it was sort
of rooted in the idea that these
two guys absolutely, positively
were dependent on one another to
solve a crime, because Holmes was
sort of the face of the franchise
but Watson was the guy that sort
of kept their feet on the ground
and did a lot of the thinking. That’s
not exactly what the dynamic is
on Psych, but the sort of ying yang
element of it of there’s no
way that either of these guys could
work on their own and there’s
no way that they could accomplish
what they were doing without the
other one is definitely sort of
a big element of what we do on Psych.

So
that’s my answer. I feel decent
about it. I’m passing it off
to Dulé.

Dulé:
I guess for myself it’s not
any real template that I came in
to with a preconceived notion in
terms of a previous detective team.
I guess if I had to choose one I
would say Cosby and Poitier in Uptown
Saturday Night. I want to say that
would be the equivalent that I could
think of, but besides that there’s
not really anything that I’ve
thought about before to say yes,
this is what the template is.

I
just want to say the premise of
the premiere episode made me smile,
because I’m in Vancouver.
I just wanted to know what was behind
the decision to actually feature
Van city in the episode? —Troy
Rogers with thedeadbolt.com

Dulé:
I think it’s that we work
in Vancouver. We’ve been working—

James:
Yes, it was an opportunity to finally
not worry about everything that
was in the background of all of
our shots. We actually could play
the locations for the actual locations,
and make believe stickers and Canadian
flags all those things were good.
And it was actually a lot of fun;
I’m glad we’ve lasted
long enough to do one to do that.
It was fun.

Dulé:
And we finally didn’t have
to move our palm trees with this;
we could leave the palm trees—

James:
That’s right, our three movable
palm trees got an episode off.

Dulé:
Right. They were tired, you know
what I mean; the palm trees were
tired. With every episode they were
…

James:
We gave them a much-deserved break.

Hello,
guys. —Tiffany D’Emidio
with Eclipse Magazine

Dulé:
How are you doing?

James:
Tiff! Where have you been all of
our lives?

You
know, I’m very stealth and
kind of behind the scenes. —Tiffany
D’Emidio with Eclipse Magazine

James:
Yes, you are. Come on out.

Now
I’m out. I have to say that
I really enjoyed the first episode,
and I particularly loved the Thomas
Crown/Remington Steele reference
and laughed pretty hard about that
one. I
really enjoy the pop culture references
that you make in the series, and
I just wondered if you could be
in any television show of the past
which would it be? Or if you could
spoof a show as an episode what
would it be? —Tiffany
D’Emidio with Eclipse Magazine

James:
Well, my answer is one in the same.
I would have given anything to be
on Twin Peaks, and if we last another
season we will be doing a Twin Peaks
episode. So there you go.

Dulé:
I guess for myself if I could have
been a Cosby kid.

Cosby
kid? —Tiffany D’Emidio
with Eclipse Magazine

Dulé:
Yes, of course. If I could have
been on Cosby that would have been
great for me. And I guess if we
could spoof any show I would say
maybe Fame; I could be
Leroy.

Oh,
you really have to do that I think.
I’m going to petition for
it. —Tiffany D’Emidio
with Eclipse Magazine

Dulé:
Sounds good.

I
have a question for both of you.
If you could investigate anybody
who would it be? —Lauren
Tucker with Small Screen Monthly

Dulé:
If I could investigate anybody who
would it be?

James:
I think I might have to just really
roll up my sleeves and investigate
Monica Bellucci and just make sure
that she’s living her life
along the straight and narrow, she’s
not cutting any corners in life,
in her work; just really get in
there and make sure that she’s
on the up and up.

Dulé:
And from my side I would investigate
Halle Bear, who is also Halle Berry.

James:
That’s it; this is classy
stuff you’re getting from
us today.

My
question is it just seems like you
have a blast; the show is so fun
to watch. And I was wondering if
the show is as much fun to shoot
as it is to watch? —Christine
Nyholm with examiner.com

Dulé:
Yes.

James:
Absolutely.

Dulé:
We have so much fun up there. The
cast is great, the crew is even
greater, and we just have a lot
of fun. No one takes themselves
too seriously; we all come to work
and we are pretty much getting paid
to laugh all day. We sing songs;
we have the best singing crew in
Vancouver. One day if you get a
chance you come up there and we’ll
have them sing you Happy Birthday
just for no reason in particular.
We sing Happy Birthday about three
or four times a day just because.
There’s a really great bunch
of people up there.

James:
And we don’t pay royalties
for it. It’s free; we can
sing Happy Birthday for free.

At Comic Con you kind of teased
that Twin Peaks would be this season.
Is that not true? —Drucilla
Moorhouse with E Online

James:
That is not true, unfortunately.
I think that something got lost
in the translation there. This season
has sort of been locked for a while;
there are no unaccounted for episodes.
That was us teasing with the hoax
that if some of our executives were
in the audience it was like a hint,
hint listen to how bad everybody
wants this. You have to keep us
on the air. It’s a promise;
it’s definitely a promise
that if there’s a season five
Twin Peaks will definitely happen.

Dulé:
I guess a little teaser too Twin
Peaks would be Ray Wise doing our
show this year. A little prelude.

James:
That’s true. It’s a
Twin Peaks prelude.

I
wanted to talk about some of the
telltale references. I actually
thought it was really funny the
jokes that you made about The Mentalist
in the premiere. When that show
started were you guys like going,
“Hmm, that sounds familiar,”
and was it sort of fun to sort of
point that out on screen? —Jay
Jacobs with PopEntertainment.com

James:
It was. No one is off limits when
it comes to us, including ourselves.
We’ve made fun of our own
sort of resumes on this show. As
long as they have a sense of humor
over there I would think that they
would be sort of flattered and get
a kick out of it.

Obviously,
it’s not malicious in any,
but it’s what we do on our
show and if you’re going to
go make a bigger show that’s
kind of like our show and get four
times as many viewers and Emmy nominations
then you should expect to hear about
it when our show airs.

My
question is do you guys have a favorite
episode to film or that you think
is the best episode you guys have
done so far? —Travis Tidmore
with CineManiac

James:
I like different ones for so many
different reasons, but I can say
that for me personally, just as
an actor, I think the most fun I’ve
ever had on our show was an episode
called "Lights, Camera... Homicido"
when my character got thrust into
the world of a Spanish telenovela
and I got to improvise in both English
and Spanish. That was a blast.

Dulé:
Well I guess for that episode I
guess Roday to be able to improvise
in Spanish he was getting in touch
with his roots so he was really
excited about that.

But
for myself it would still have to
go back to American Duos. I just
can’t help it, I just loved
dressing up as Michael Jackson and
being able to do a moonwalk, have
John Landis direct me while I’m
dressed up as Michael Jackson in
Thriller. And there was a crowd
there, too, so you can’t really
beat that. You can’t really
beat that. That’s one of my
all time favorite experiences on
Psych.

I
was going to ask you if you had
any things that you could tell us
about this upcoming season, whatever
you feel free to share either overall
or specifics about what we can expect
this season. —Suzanne
Lanoue with TV MegaSite

James:
In terms of sort of themes for episodes
you saw that we’re doing sort
of an expedition Canada, catch a
jewel/art thief episode, and we’re
doing sort of a Shawn and Gus save
an old western town and everything
that comes along with that that
you could imagine, including a grizzled,
gray bearded James Brolin.

Dulé:
Exorcism episode.

James:
Yes, we’re paying tribute
to the Exorcist with our exorcism
episode featuring the aforementioned
Ray Wise, who is just fantastic
in the episode I have to say. Just
really came in and knocked it out
of the park.

Dulé:
American Werewolf in London homage.

James:
That’s right, a little love
letter to American Werewolf in London
and werewolf movies in general featuring
David Naughton, obviously, and Josh
Malina. And lots of other fun stuff.

I
have to say I think we’re
kind of storming out of our gates
this year with some really good
stuff. I think last year we stormed
in our heads, but we were actually
like trotting at a casual pace,
and this year I actually think we’re
storming out of the gates for real.

To
kind of follow-up on some previous
questions, how many of the pop culture
references come from you, including
the Chad Michael Murray reference?
—Roger Newcomb with We
Love Soaps

Dulé:
I would say about 99.9% of them
do not come from me. Maybe if there’s
something in the ‘70s that
might be something that I came with,
but most of the ‘80s references
I have no idea what I’m talking
about. It’s not until after
I film it that I turn around and
say, “Okay, now what was that
about?”

James:
Who were the twins that you knew
that I had never heard of in Tuesday
the 17th?

Dulé:
The twins? Oh, the Mowli Twins.

James:
The Mowli twins. That was your 0.01%
man.

Dulé:
That and what’s the other
one? I don’t even know if
it made it to air, the Gill Scott
Heron.

James:
Oh, that was. That made it two.
That made it two.

Dulé: Gill Scott Heron. That’s
my two for the year.

James:
Yes. Most of them come from the
writers and then I throw in my fair
share as well. Chad Michael Murray
became the target of some early
jabbing for us after I saw some
interview where it was like a behind
the scenes of House of Wax and he
was wearing a wife beater. It was
just a real serious interview, and
I got such a kick out of it that
we had to have some fun at his expense.
Hopefully he’s a good-natured
guy with a sense of humor.

So
my question is how does becoming
co-producers affect your roles on
the show? —Alix Sternberg
at thetvchick.com

Dulé:
I don’t know what Roday thinks,
but from my side I don’t think
it really changes that much. I think
from the beginning of the show the
dynamic has pretty much been what
it is. Maybe say from Roday’s
side he may write a few more episodes,
but he was already writing episodes
anyway. From my side I would think
it’s more of a title; it hasn’t
really changed the actual working
dynamic that much. Maybe a little
bit changes, but nothing too major.

James:
Yes. I think, like Dulé said,
the dynamic was sort of set from
the first season. Because none of
our producers are up in Vancouver
with us it was just sort of a necessary
thing that we take on a little more
responsibility to help the show
sort of run smoothly. They finally
decided to throw us a title for
it.

My
question is just this year they
released two books for Psych and
your characters and everything,
and I was wondering if you were
to ever read those yourselves and
you could come up with your own
kind of merchandise what would you
like to see? —Lauren Becker
with Shooting Stars Magazine

Dulé:
Well, I would read it if I had one
and if I knew there was one that
was out.

James:
I was going to say it’s good
to know that there are books out.
I didn’t know that.

Dulé:
Maybe I’ll try to read it
one day on the set.

James:
Merchandise.

Dulé:
I would have to say a video game.
I love video games anyway, so a
Psych video game somehow that I
could play on Xbox or Wii would
be great.

James:
I have to say I think the idea of
a talking bobblehead was pretty
solid, and someone actually came
up with already and did it. I love
the idea of little Shawn and Gus
bobbleheads.

Dulé:
Which, by the way, I have my President
Obama bobblehead also. So when I
get my Psych bobbleheads it will
be Shaun, Gus, and President Barack
Obama bobbleheads sitting on my
counter.

James:
I might give you Ichiro Suzuki bobblehead
just so that you can add it and
it would be a quartet.

Dulé:
Sounds good.

For
the record, Without a Clue
is one of my favorite movies of
all time. —Russell Trunk
with exclusivemagazine.com

James:
Good man. Good man.

I
was wondering if you, James, had
visited any actual psychics in order
to watch and observe them in action?
And if you, Dulé, being an
encyclopedia of useless knowledge
that oddly becomes useful every
week, is it anything like the way
your brain works in real life? —Russell
Trunk with exclusivemagazine.com

Dulé:
Well from my side no; I try not
to fill up my brain cells with useless
information. So most of the time
I’m pretty much just learning
it as it comes in the scripts.

James:
And for me I visited a couple psychics
back before we shot the pilot just
because I was sort of interested
to hear their back stories and sort
of how the power manifests itself.

And
of course you never know if they’re
legit or not, but there were some
interesting stories in terms of
like physicalizing the gift. I was
interested to hear like does it
ever take over your body, does your
body heat rise, stuff like that;
anything that I could steal. Of
course I did not tell them while
visiting that I was going to be
playing a fake psychic nor did they
figure it out on their own, so maybe
that tells you everything you need
to know about the people that I
met with.

And
I have to say, for the record, my
favorite line from Without A Clue
is after Michael Caine pokes a dead
body with a stick and announces
to everyone, “It is my opinion
that this man is dead.” So
there you go.

What’s
the one question that you both wish
someone would ask you that no one
has ever asked you? —BethAnne
Henderson with NiceGirlsTV.com

Dulé:
I guess I would say that question
you just asked me. It would be just
a reoccurring cycle just would keep
going around, because then my response
would be the question you just asked
me if you would ask me the question
again.

James:
Wow. That’s a tough one. That’s
a good one. I love talking about
my fellow cast mates, because I
think they’re all geniuses
and I think they’re all so
talented. So anything that allows
me the opportunity to go off ranting
about them and watching them work
and what a joy it is for me to sort
of sit back if I’m writing
or directing and sort of watch them
do their thing is a great question
that I feel like I don’t get
asked enough. But that’s it;
that’s the best that I can
give you.

Which one of you is the most like
your character on the series or
are you completely different? —Kristyn
Clarke with popculturemadness.com

James:
I think we’re both pretty
different. I do. I think that’s
one of the things that is really
cool about our show is that we have
as much fun as we do, A, and B,
we get to play characters that are
pretty different from our real life
personas.

Dulé:
But actually going back to someone’s
previous question about useless
information I would say that Roday
is more like Gus in that area, especially
with film trivia, ‘80s trivia.
He and Steve Franks can lift off
songs on an album. I guess—

James:
I have the trunk of useless knowledge.

Dulé:
Yes.

I
was wondering you guys have such
great chemistry on the show does
that come naturally? —Karen
Jackson with Starpulse.com

Dulé:
I think so; I think it comes naturally.
From the time we first got together
there was a good vibe there, and
we’ve had a cast that continued
to grow with it. I think even off
screen we get along very well. The
cast as a whole we like hanging
out with each, making each other
laugh, going out having dinner,
playing poker, playing mafia. It’s
just us up there in Vancouver, so
if we didn’t get along then
I think it would show itself on
screen. So I would say it comes
pretty natural.

James:
I agree with all of that.

I
just have to say right quick "Lights,
Camera... Homicido" was on
repeat at my house for the longest—love
that episode. And just finished
seeing the premiere a couple of
nights ago, and I couldn’t
help but wonder while I was watching
is there anything, in your guys’
opinions, that would cause Gus to
say no more? Is there anything that
Shawn could do that would just drive
Gus over the edge and Gus would
just have to take a stand and say
no, I’m just not going to
do that? Icess Fernandez with the
blog Writing to Insanity

Dulé:
I don’t know if there is anything
that Shawn could do. I do think
there is something that Jeff Wachtel
and Bonnie Hammer could do--if they
say the show is over they maybe
might see Gus say no more.

But no, I don’t think so.
I think they’ve been together
for so long they’re like brothers.
I think a major part of Gus really
enjoys going along on the journeys
that Shawn takes him, but just doesn’t
want to come out of his face and
actually admit. He always wants
to say this is wrong and we shouldn’t
be doing this, but I think he would
go pretty much wherever Shawn leads
him, and I don’t think Shawn
would lead him to far off the ledge.
I think there’s like a nice
little balance there.

James:
I think if there was going to be
something that caused him to say
that it would have happened already.
Shawn has done some pretty whacked
stuff to him, so I think he’s
in. I think he’s in at this
point.

Dulé:
Right.

How
is your Friday treating you? —Courtney
Shink with Raked Reviews

Dulé:
It’s treating me well.

James:
Not bad. I woke up, I have friendly
voices on the other end of the line;
I got nowhere to go but down.

Dulé:
Speaking of which, a little bit
of trivia. It’s a little bit
of trivia. I’m actually, after
this phone call, I’m going
to the wedding of Matt Cedeño,
who was on "Homicidio".

James:
Wow.

Dulé:
There’s a little bit of trivia.
I’m going there this afternoon,
speaking of Friday. He’s getting
married today.

James:
I’ll be danged.

Awesome.
Well I have a quick question for
you. I think there’s a danger
in comedy when you go across a number
of seasons that you could become
predictable or stale. How do you
guys keep this show so fresh? —Courtney
Shink with Raked Reviews

James:
It’s a good question, and
I think part of the answer is that
all of us, from producers to writers
to actors and everybody, is sort
of hyper aware of what you just
said. You couldn’t have a
group that was sort of more acutely
aware of not getting complacent,
of recognizing how important it
is to not become predictable and
to not get stale, because it happens
to so many other shows. And so when
we go to break stories and we’re
on set it sort of pushes us, quite
frankly, to not settle for stuff
that feels like it could be better
and that’s sort of the way
we’ve been treating the show
from the beginning.

And
while it may get more and more challenging
the longer that we last the truth
is we don’t ever want to be
considered one of those shows that
dropped off after season blank and
then was just sort of on autopilot
until the end. And I don’t
think anyone will ever sort of break
in that regard; we’ll always
continue to challenge each other
and make sure that everybody is
working as hard as they possibly
can.

Dulé:
And I think it’s very easy
to, I guess, just to do what you
think works. I think, as Roday was
saying, we keep challenging ourselves
to keep raising the bar, to keep
staying engaged, and even as the
actors on the set to keep staying
connected and staying alive each
time we do it.

And
then also I think certain things
we try to make sure we don’t
run certain things to the ground,
like Gus is not going to run screaming
out every episode. After you find
yourself doing certain things for
a while you kind of say okay, let’s
go someplace else with it to keep
the characters alive.

James:
Absolutely.

Moderator:
The next question is from Lina Lamoray
with Lina Lamoray Magazine. Please
go ahead.

Hello,
guys. —Lina Lamoray with
Lina Lamoray Magazine

Dulé:
Hello.

James:
Look at you naming your magazine
after yourself.

I
know. Okay, "American Duos"
has to be my favorite episode. What
was it like working with Tim Curry
and the rest of the guest stars?

Dulé:
Oh, wow, it was great. First of
all, just the fact that Roday and
Tim Curry went into a little back
and forth saying, “No.”
You couldn’t really beat that.
You’re working with a comic
genius, a great actor, along with
Gina Gershon too, it was great.
And then having John Landis direct,
as I said before, for myself it
was one of the all time great moments
for me on Psych.

James:
It was a blast of an episode and
it was cast perfectly. It was just
one of those things where all the
pieces came together and you just
sort of sat back and pinched yourself
a little bit, because you’re
like I can’t believe this
is A, happening, and B, like episode
one of season two. So the planets
definitely aligned on that one.

Hey,
guys, it’s great to hear some
Without A Clue love there.
—Rafe Telsh with WidescreenWarrior.com

James:
Thanks, man. Everybody should go
rent that movie. I’m just
putting that out there, because
that’s such a little gem.

I
came up with a little trickier question,
because your show’s Twitter
feed said they were tired of hearing
the same questions over and over
again. Both of you play characters
who are more complicated than they
first appear, like it would be easy
to play Shawn as just this grifting
slacker but there’s more to
him than that. What do each of you
think is your character’s
most difficult trait to capture
and what moment in the show has
allowed that character element to
shine? —Rafe Telsh with
WidescreenWarrior.com

James:
Well that’s very insightful
and thoughtful indeed. For me I
would say the most challenging thing
about playing Shawn is the tight
wire act between slacker and man
child, and then also somebody that
you really do want to invest in
emotionally and like every week.
And the line between wanting to
rub his head and slap his face is
very, very, very thin. And sort
of walking that line and always
knowing when to stop is sort of
the most challenging on a day-to-day
basis.

In terms of like a single event
that sort of helped me with that
I would say probably when we brought
Shawn’s mother onto the show,
first episode of season three. Kind
of we peeled back a layer that I
think by tapping into it has allowed
that sort of tight wire act to get
a little easier just because you
sort of saw a side of him that was
way vulnerable that he didn’t
have complete control over. And
once we sort of put that out there
I think it made things a little
bit easier in terms of the balancing
act.

Dulé:
And then just for myself is one
I don’t I guess get too cerebral
with my character, so I don’t
really think about it like that
too often. I guess when a question
comes up it makes me think about
it, but in my day-to-day action
on the set I don’t really
process it I just do it.

I
would say I guess for me it would
be that Gus to not make him too
nerdy but not make him too cool,
because he is a nerd. But at the
same time you want him to be cool
also, and I think too far in either
direction would change the dynamic
of the show. So it’s always
trying to find that balance of cool
nerdiness or nerdy coolness or something
like that. That would be my answer
to that.

When
I talked to James a little while
ago you kind of gave me the may
or may not be a werewolf episode.
I was wondering if at this point
there are any may or may not things
you would tell us about what’s
going to happen. —Marc
Eastman with areyouscreening.com

James:
Well there may or may not be a continuation
of the story that capped off our
season last year, An Evening With
Mr. Yang.

Dulé:
And there may or may not be something
big coming.

James:
There may or may be our biggest
guest star ever appearing on the
show down the stretch. And we may
or may not be getting another dose
of what Gus’ hair looked like
in the ‘90s. How’s that?

My
question is kind of weird, but forgive
me. If Shawn and Gus went camping
and they ran into a clan of hungry,
angry cannibals what would the plan
be to fight them off? And would
Gus’ wicked dance moves or
maybe his random knowledge come
into play somehow? —Josh
Bozeman with thebluesite.com

Dulé:
I would say first Shawn would probably
try to do some kind of psychic intervention
to lead them on a place for much
better food. And then Gus would
come in and talk about the nutritional
principals of the food they were
going to get instead of the make-up
of eating Shawn and Gus together.
Because eating the two of us together
wouldn’t be good, but eating
what we’re going to go and
get would be that much better. And
somewhere—

James:
I think there would be a diatribe
about how dark meat is far worse
for you than white mean, which Shawn
of course would take and run with
until he realizes that they’re
doing a pretty good sales job on
white meat and now everybody is
just looking at him. At which point
Gus would have to create a diversion,
and you would end up with us running
as fast as our legs would carry
us and probably screaming bloody
murder.

Dulé:
Yes. At the top of our lungs at
the highest pitch possible.

James:
Yes.

Moderator
Our next question is from Please
go ahead.

S.
Roberts Hello, guys. I love the
show and I love you guys together.

Dulé:
Thank you. We love you.

James:
Thanks, Stacy.

You
said what your favorite episode
was, but you guys have done so many
great things together on the show
what has been your favorite like
moment on the show? —Stacy
Roberts with Seriously? OMG!

James:
Well since we’ve already sort
of thrown out the "Duos"
thing a couple of times I’ll
try to name one that doesn’t
involve us dressing up and singing
at the end of that episode. I don’t
know.

Dulé:
There are so many.

James:
There are so many good ones, but
I think back at some of the early
ones just because they were the
moments that sort of helped set
the tone and define the series.
I think it was a lot harder to come
by moments like that in the early
episodes, as opposed to now when
we’ve been doing it so long.

So
I’ll say the scene in "Forgive
Me Not" where we were pretending
to be doctors from other countries
and spoke in the ticktock language
to the zoo doctor. I think for where
we were in the series that was pretty
inspired that—

Dulé:
Yes. I would have to agree with
that; that was one of the classic
moments. It wasn’t planned
to go as far as it did, and Mel
Damski just let us run with it and
it turned into that where we just
were-- I don’t even know how
we were communicating, but we were
doing some kind of language to each
other that kept on going.

I
wanted to thank James specifically
right now, because I recently posted
pictures of him grocery shopping
in Vancouver on my website and you
made my site go crazy. You’re
a major sex symbol. —Rosa
Cordero with accidentialsexiness.com

James:
Thank you. I guess I was out of
vitamin water, huh?

So
my question is at Comic Con you
guys mentioned something about a
musical episode and also there was
a mention of a possible porn spoof.
And so I wanted to let you guys
know if you did do the porn spoof
I have a lot of volunteers. —Rosa
Cordero with accidentialsexiness.com

Dulé:
Oh, okay. Tell them they’re
welcome to come join us.

I’m
at the front of the line. —Rosa
Cordero with accidentialsexiness.com

Dulé:
Okay. Sounds good to me.

James:
That’s awesome. Thank you.

So
the musical episode—are you
guys really going to do a musical?
—Rosa Cordero with accidentialsexiness.com

James:
I would say yes. If we can last
a little bit longer you’ll
definitely get a musical episode
before all is said and done.

I
was wondering in the new episode
you work with Cary Elwes. What was
that like and were there any Dread
Pirate Roberts jokes going on? —Jay
Jacobs with PopEntertainment.com

James:
We went pretty light on him. We
went pretty light on him with The
Princess Bride jokes. He came
in and he was very focused and he
wanted to do a really good job.
He had given his character a lot
of thought, and that was sort of
enough for us, I think, just seeing
an actor of that caliber come in
and be definitely sort of concerned
and tuned in as he was. I mean don’t
get me wrong; we had a great time
with him and he was a blast to work
with, but we didn’t rib him
too much.

So
in season three we got to see a
lot more of the serious side of
the characters. Are we going to
get more of that in season four?
—Eleanor Greeley with Spoiler
TV

Dulé:
Definitely.

James:
Yes, a little bit. You don’t
ever want to go too far in that
direction, because I think people
have plenty of shows that they watch
to watch people be serious. I think
at the end of the day it’s
always going to be important for
us to mostly deliver what has made
us successful, but there will definitely
be episodes this year where you
see us flip our serious switches.
Gus has a serious jackal switch
where it’s still a jackal
but it’s a serious jackal.

Dulé:
Yes. That will have to make its
way out some time this year.

A
multi-parter. What has it been like
to be on USA Network, and I was
wondering if you think kind of there’s
any big differences being on cable?
And also, kind of related to that,
do you guys ever feel like you’re
kind of in friendly competition
with newer series, other multiple
of detective, spy, comedy series?
—Rachel Levy with SideReel

Dulé:
From my side I think it’s
great on USA. They really take the
time to nurture their shows, they
give you the chance to grow, and
they give you the freedom to try
different things. I would say everyone
over there at USA, Jeff Wachtel,
Bonnie Hammer, they all are very
brilliant at what they do and they
know what works. They know what
works for their network and their
track record proves it.

In
terms of like feeling in competition
I myself don’t. I always feel
that your journey is your journey
and what’s good for one is
good for all. If the network is
doing well then it’s great
for all of us, so if they have a
show that comes and premiers well
great; that makes us that much more
stronger. As long as we can hold
down our spot then I think we can
keep going along for a good ...

James:
Yes. I think what we do is fairly
unique on Psych, and we just have
to keep doing that because that’s
what got us where we are. So you
can’t really worry about any
other show, whether it’s on
USA or not. You have to stay true
to yourselves and hope that people
keep watching, and in the meantime
just be, like Dulé said,
just be happy for the family because
it seems like everything they churn
out right now turns to gold.

I
don’t have any zombie or porn
questions, but now that you’ve
had your first experience at Comic
Con how was it for you guys? I know
it was great for us fans to see
you, but how did you enjoy Comic
Con? —Rae Hanson with
RTVW Online

Dulé:
I actually loved it. I wished that
I wasn’t so tired, because
we had worked the night before in
Vancouver and we flew down to LA
I guess Wednesday and then I got
up and flew to Comic Con Thursday
morning. So I was pretty exhausted,
so I wish I had more energy to be
able to walk around. So I’m
hoping to be able to go back next
year and make sure I get some rest.

But
I enjoyed it. It was great being
there with all the fans and seeing
people’s reactions. I enjoyed
seeing the different outfits that
I did see. Hopefully we’ll
get a chance to do it for many more
years.

James:
Yes, I was absolutely blown away.
I mean working up in Vancouver,
to an extent, sort of puts us in
a bubble. To be able to come face-to-face
with our fans and see their reaction
I felt like the fourth Jonas Brother
and I feel like Dulé was
the fifth black Jonas Brother.

Even
though it was only for an hour it
was just an overwhelming, heartwarming
response. I don’t want to
go as far as to say it’s like
a validating thing, but you really
sort of felt for a moment there
like wow what we’re doing
is connecting with people, and that’s
the best feeling you can have as
an artist for sure.

All
right. Well this question is for
both of you. If you had the opportunity
to choose some music for a Psych
soundtrack what are a few tracks
that would make the cut? —Chelsea
Daigle with Music, Movies, Mayhem

Dulé:
For a Psych soundtrack?

James:
Shout would be on there.

Dulé:
Shout would be on there. I guess
I would say Pass the Dutchie by
Musical Youth. Oh, Man in the Mirror.

James:
Man in the Mirror. I would give
Priscilla Ahn a shout out.

Dulé:
What’s that one where it goes
ahhh, it’s a Hall and Oates
one, “I’ll do anything
that you want me to.”

James:
I Can’t Go For That.

Dulé:
Yes.

James:
And Priscilla Ahn’s A Good
Day that’s the song that played
when Lassiter broke up with his
ex-wife. That probably should be
on there. Maybe at the end.

So
what I want to know is if people
haven’t started watching Psych
yet why should they tune in now?
—Traci Grant with TheStarScoop.com

Dulé:
Well there’s so much serious
stuff going on in the world I think
it’s a great show to come
and sit back, put your feet up,
and laugh for a little bit; just
clear your minds. I think anyone
who comes and watches this show
definitely laughs out loud at least
once, so if you’re looking
to just step away from all the stress
for a second then I would say check
out Psych.

You
know we’re like kids in a
candy store, and it kind of brings
people back to a time in their youth
when people just dared to do anything,
and that’s what we do on Psych.

James:
And there are so few rules that
we have to follow in terms of making
this show. I don’t think there
are a lot of other shows out there
where one week you’re wearing
chaps and spurs and riding a horse
and the next week you’re running
from a potato sack headed killer
chasing you into the woods with
a machete, and yet you’re
still laughing both times. I think
it’s a pretty unique little
hybrid; it has something for everyone.

I’m
going to go back to the American
Werewolf episode. You wrote that,
James. Right? —Drucilla
Moorhouse with E Online

James:
Yes. I co-wrote that with my best
friend Todd Harthan.

Can you talk more about it? It was
my favorite movie of all time. And
is John Landis directing? —Drucilla
Moorhouse with E Online

James:
Wow. I’m right there with
you; it’s definitely one of
my favorite movies of all time.
The original plan was to have Landis
direct it for obvious reasons. He
is off directing a feature in England
right now. So we got the incomparable
Andrew Bernstein to step in in his
place, who did a fantastic job,
who Dulé has known since
his West Wing days.

It’s
not unlike Tuesday the 17th; it’s
an episode that needs to sort of
stand on its own feet, but will
definitely have moments where we’re
winking and nodding and proclaiming
our love for the original. But it
has its own little story and its
own little twists and turns.

Just
having David Naughton on set was
enough for me, because I got to
pick his brain for the better part
of a week and ended up getting a
signed picture of him mid-transformation
with the elongated torso reaching
up at me. That’s getting framed
and going on a wall.

I
was wondering how has the success
of this show changed your life?
—Karen Jackson with Starpulse.com

Dulé:
Well for myself it hasn’t
really changed that much, because
I had come from the West Wing before.
So West Wing had more of a bigger
change in terms of my daily life
than going from West Wing to Psych.
The only thing I would say there’s
more fans, because the audience
is different.

But
in terms of regular life I wouldn’t
say it’s that much. I guess
doing the show has changed my life
because I’m in Vancouver six
months out of the year. So you’re
kind of battling that being settled
in one place, because by the time
that I come home and I get settled
in LA and used to being home and
having my home life I now have to
go back to Vancouver and live six
months up there. But there are worse
things I can be going through, so
I’m not complaining at all.

James:
My socks and underwear don’t
have holes in them anymore. That
was a big deal for me.

I just wanted to know with your
vast knowledge about show biz basically
and obviously you’ve done
some work on writing before, would
you guys think about anything in
the future that you would like to
possibly write or direct? Maybe
a new version of Twin Peaks, knock
on wood, because I really loved
that show too. —Jennifer
Iaccino with Media Blvd Magazine

Dulé:
Well in terms of writing, I think
in the future you will see me writing
something called Nothing; it will
be a blank piece of paper with nothing
written on it, because I have no
ambition to write so that’s
not going to be happening. I’ll
leave all that up to James Roday.

James:
Yes. I feel like this have been
an invaluable sort of experience
for me, because I’ve managed
to kind of cut my teeth doing all
of the things that I do aspire to
do. Hopefully by the time this show
has a long and successful run I’ll
have sort of banked enough stuff
to sort of go out there and get
myself another gig writing or directing.

I
can tell you that when we do the
Twin Peaks episode it will probably
either be myself or Steve Franks
directing, and the two of us will
certainly write it because I don’t
think anyone else knows half as
much about that show as we do. So
I don’t think we would feel
comfortable handing it off, unless
David Lynch wanted to come in and
direct, in which case we’d
make an exception.

I
was wondering you’ve had a
ton of fantastic guest stars. Who
would you like to see on the show
and who do you think they would
play? —Courtney Shink
with Raked Reviews

James:
My answer is going to stay the same
until we get him on. The answer
is David Bowie, and anybody he wants
is whom he will play.

Dulé: And for myself I would
like to get someone like Chris Tucker
on the show. It would be great if
he could play some kind of, I mean
he could play anybody he wanted
to also, but he could play some
kind of relative of mine or something.
It would be a lot of fun.

James:
I think David Bowie could also play
David Bowie if he wanted to, and
Shawn and Gus could just have an
episode where they hung out with
David Bowie.

Dulé:
I think David Bowie could play Mr.
Guster in season five.

James:
He could.

Dulé:
There you go—because we change
my dad all the time. Like dude,
your daddy is David Bowie.